"soon before"?

[Wilson Gray]

On May 18, 2005, at 4:20 PM, sagehen wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject:      "soon before"?
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>
> Seymour Hersh in  /Chain of Command/ on pp. 355-6 writes:
> "....security official said in an interview _soon before_ the transfer
> of
> sovereignty that..."  [my emphasis].
> This looks & sounds very odd to me;  I would expect _shortly
> before_here.
> A. Murie
>

You have my vote!

-Wilson